Harlan Yu

Harlan Yu is the Executive Director of Upturn. Based in Washington D.C., Upturn works at the intersection of social justice and technology, to ensure that new technology reflects the interests and needs of those at the margins. Recently, Harlan has focused on the impact of emerging technologies in policing and criminal justice, such as body-worn cameras, and in particular their disproportionate effects on communities of color.

Harlan has extensive experience working at the intersection of technology and policy. He has previously worked at Google in both engineering and public policy roles, as a technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and at the U.S. Department of Labor. Prior to founding Upturn, his research and projects focused on open government, consumer privacy, and electronic voting.

Harlan holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Princeton University, and a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley.

Last month, the city of St. Louis unanimously opted to accept a year of free body-worn cameras from Axon, formerly known as TASER and the nation’s largest camera vendor. While some members of the community, including the families of those who have been killed by the police, have pushed the city to adopt body-worn cameras, cameras alone can’t fix the accountability problems that have plagued police departments both locally and across the country.

Last summer, the NYPD asked New Yorkers what rules should apply to the body-worn cameras that police will soon begin wearing. The response was overwhelming: More than 25,000 people responded to the department’s survey. The community asked for policies that would make the camera program more transparent, so that the footage can make cops more accountable to the people.

Last week, the NYPD announced its new body-worn camera policy. Turns out, the NYPD isn’t actually that interested in what the public thinks.

"One of the most significant challenges in releasing body-camera recordings is balancing privacy with transparency, said Harlan Yu, executive director of Upturn, a nonprofit focused on technology and public policy.

That balance can be facilitated when police departments craft their policies after discussions with the community they serve.

"“Departments often justify unrestricted footage review policies by arguing that it allows officers to write more accurate reports, but in our view, these policies just create an illusion of accuracy,” Harlan Yu, executive director of Upturn, said in a conference call after the report was released."

"The ads also stop short of fully explaining the rights of a citizen in a traffic stop, according to Harlan Yu, the executive director of Upturn, a nonprofit that studies how technology affects social issues.

“One thing that I think is missing from this is how somebody who does get stopped, where the officers are wearing body-worn cameras, how that person is able to get body-worn camera video,” Mr. Yu said."